The Lost Girl
by Lyn Dulce
Summary: At a rave in an old warehouse, the Doctor finds Donna in an unusual state. Now he has to figure out what happened to her, and how to get her back to normal.
1. The Lost Girl

_The Lost Girl  
_

_Summary: Donna has run into trouble in an old warehouse._

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: I initially wanted to write some crack to juxtapose all the CoE angst, but that didn't exactly work out._

_Written for weekly drabble challenge #15 at doctor_donna on LJ. Prompt was 'watching'. Also, the setting was kinda inspired by the song "Dance Commander" by Electric Six._

The Doctor was watching the crowd warily, searching for any sign of his ginger companion. The loud music was grating, the crowd dancing in unison. He edged carefully around the mass of bodies. When he finally reached a corner of the old warehouse, he found a little girl with bright red hair, curled up and crying. Donna. He knelt down next to her, touching her shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes fearful, tears still pouring down her face.

"Let me take you somewhere safe," he shouted over the noise. The little girl looked at him warily. For a moment, he thought she would be too scared to accept his offer, and he would have to drag the child screaming to the Tardis. Luckily, it didn't come to that. She put her little hand in his and held on tight as he led them back the way he had came.

When they reached the exit, he let the heavy door swing shut behind them, muffling most of the noise from within.

"Where are we?" little Donna asked him, her face tear-stained.

"We are a long way from home," the Doctor answered her, "But don't worry, I'll keep you safe."

She seemed reassured by that, and walked alongside him as he led her back to the Tardis, where he hopefully would be able to reverse whatever had happened to her. He cast a glance back at the warehouse. He was not finished with that place yet.


	2. Welcome to the TARDIS

_Welcome to the Tardis_

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: Written for weekly drabble challenge #17 'touch' at doctor_donna_.

Once inside the Tardis, Donna's fear was replaced with awe.

"But how does it all _fit_?"

The Doctor smiled. The grown-up Donna would never admit to being that impressed.

"I've seen bigger," she said.

Apparently this Donna was more like her grown-up self than he thought.

She walked up to the console, trailing her fingers along the edge. Once she had gone all the way around, she stood on tip-toe and started to reach towards a switch.

"No no no!" the Doctor said, "Don't touch that!" He pulled her back from the console.

"Why not?" she demanded, staring him down.

"Because it's some very sensitive and highly dangerous equipment!"

"You're just being mean!"

"No I'm not! I'm just - "

"You are! Meanie! You just kidnapped me to be mean!"

"What? No! I'm not - "

"You are! Meanie meanie meanie!"

The Doctor groaned. He had forgotten how annoying small children could be, and Donna wasn't someone he could win arguments against on the best of days.

"How about I show you you're room?" he offered, hoping that Donna would be accepting of minor bribes.

She bit back the insult she was about to hurl at him.

"I have a room?" she asked, cautious.

"Right this way," the Doctor said, guiding her out of the console room. Figuring out what had happened to Donna, while trying to keep her temper in check, was going to be a bit harder than he thought.


	3. Toasters and Teddy Bears

_Toasters and Teddy Bears_

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: Written for weekly drabble challenge #18 at doctor_donna. Prompt was 'addiction'._

After the Doctor had manged to get Donna to fall asleep in the bed that was now far too large for her (a task that took over two hours and several bribes), he turned his attention solely towards finding out what was wrong with her.

He snuck into her room, something he would never have done while she was fully-grown (except for maybe once or twice). Holding a scanner in one hand, and a whirring blinking thing that he wasn't exactly sure what it did, but could come in handy. As he approached the bed, the young Donna mumbled something and rolled over, clutching tighter the teddy bear that he had found when she demanded he check the closet for monsters. He was torn between wanting to watch her sleep and continuing his work. Seeing her so vulnerable was rare, but he knew he would have to keep working. When the thingy had beeped that it was finished taking readings, he crept slowly out of her room, leaving the door open just a crack. The Tardis had moved his lab directly across the hall. He wanted to be near in case she needed him.

As the thingy and the scanner transmitted their data onto the screen, the Doctor realised that this surge of over-protectiveness towards Donna was going to make going back and investigating the warehouse very difficult.

A few hours later, the tests had shown that this transformation was chemical in nature. The strange mix of chemicals were infused in Donna all were from very rare plant and animal life, all from radically different home-worlds. Whoever had mixed this up, did it for a very specific reason.

Of course, while the Doctor was figuring all this out, he had managed to disassemble and 'improve' several different pieces of technology. While he was in the middle of rewiring a particularly obstinate toaster, a voice piped up from behind him.

"What're you doing?" She was still clinging on to that teddy bear, looking lost again.

"Donna!" he said, "I thought you were sleeping."

"I was, but now I'm not," she said, "So what're you doing?"

"I'm just...tinkering."

"Do you do that a lot?" she asked, moving closer to inspect the remnants of the toaster.

"Yeah... a fair bit."

"D'you know that that's an addishun?"

"Oh really?" he said, impressed that she knew a word like that at her age, "And how did you learn that word?"

"My mum. She said that Gramps has an addishun to space stuff."

"And what do you think?"

"I think the space stuff is silly, but I like going up the hill with Gramps and Daddy and looking at all the stars." She looked down at her teddy sadly, "Can you take me home Doctor?"

He looked at her carefully. She was still as lost and scared as she was when he had first found her in the warehouse, despite her brave face. "I promise. I'll get you home as soon as I can." She smiled brightly at him. "Now, how about you help me put together this toaster?"

"That's a _toaster_?"


	4. Playtime

_Playtime_

_Disclaimer: Don't own, except my cousin **did** do something similar, without the outfit._

_AN/Warnings: I was hoping for something a little different, but apparently Donna wanted this more than to see the universe._

"Doctor!" Donna called, "I'm _bored_!"

The Doctor looked up from his workplace, strange additions bobbing on his glasses. "Well, why don't you explore the Tardis then?"

"I've been exploring and I'm bored. Come play with me."

"But I'm trying to reverse-engineer this concoction so I can come up with some sort of antidote so I can get you home."

"We can go home later. Play now." And the young Donna stared at him in that determined manner that the Doctor knew that there was absolutely no way she wasn't getting her way.

And that was how the Doctor, the Oncoming Storm, Destroyer of Worlds, came to be sitting at a table far to small for him, wearing a pink fluffy tiara (with matching apron), sharing biscuits and conversing with Josie the oversized stuffed panda.


	5. Return

_Return_

_Summary: The Doctor goes back to the warehouse, to search for the cause of Donna's condition._

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: For weekly drabble challenge #22 at lj comm="doctor_donna" /. Prompt was 'uniform'._

After two hours of torture and embarrassment on the Doctor's part, Donna was finally asleep. He knew that would give him roughly ten hours to explore the warehouse. The TARDIS would send a signal to his sonic screwdriver if she needed him before then.

When he stepped out into the cool night, it had only been a few minutes since he left. Following the flashing lights and pounding bass-line, he quickly found the right warehouse. He wound his way through the oblivious party-goers, heading towards a door he had spotted before stumbling across Donna. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, using it on the door before trying to open in. Mysterious half-hidden doorways were usually locked. Hmm. Apparently this was one of those exceptions. He used the screwdriver on it again, and the door popped open. In front of him, a dimly lit corridor stretched to either side, with another corridor branching off a little to his right. He decided at random to take the offshoot. Several doors of a uniform style interrupted the bland wall at random. Opening each of them in turn, he found that most were filled with old, rotting boxes, a few were completely empty, and one contained a large assortment of arcats, a type of small rodent.

He began to think he maybe ought to come up with a better tactic for searching, when a flash of light erupted from underneath a doorway, mere inches from where he stood.


	6. She's Back

_She's Back_

_Summary: Here a Donna, there a Donna..._

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: (slightly late) For weekly drabble challenge #23 at doctor_donna. Prompt was 'denial'._

The Doctor couldn't believe what was behind the door. Well, he could, it was theoretically possible and all, but denial made more sense.

In that room, there were countless Donna's milling about, all of them at different ages.

"Oi! Come on, let's get out of here!" A familiar voice said, grabbing his hand and pulling him back.

"But, Donna? What - "

"Shush! We can talk when we get back to the TARDIS!"

She dragged him back down the corridor to the rave, weaving through the crowd, only stopping once they were outside.

"Where'd you park?" she asked.

He took the lead now, through the dark alleyways.

"But Donna, I still don't - "

"Shush time-boy! Not till we're safe in the TARDIS."

"But you should know - "

"TARDIS!" she said, and he knew better than to try and push it further. Of course, he'd probably get slapped when she unexpectedly found a younger version of herself already in the TARDIS.

Just as they came into view of the TARDIS, the screwdriver went off, signaling that the younger Donna needed him.


	7. Who're You?

_Who're You?_

_Summary: Donna and the Doctor meet up with the younger Donna in the kitchen._

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: Written for weekly drabble challenge #24 at doctor_donna. Prompt was 'sleep'_

The Doctor raced to the TARDIS, Donna trailing behind.

"Doctor! What was that alarm for?" she asked as he fumbled for his key.

"You said no talking until we were in the TARDIS," he said as he darted inside, partially to hide from Donna.

Loud bangs and crashes led him directly (after a few wrong turns) to the kitchen. The place was a mess. The bottommost cupboards were completely emptied onto the floor, and the ones above were well on their way to joining them. The younger Donna was standing on the counter.

"Donna! Get down from there!"

"Oi! Get down from where?" the older Donna asked, entering the room.

"Who're you?" the younger Donna said, before the Doctor could begin try to explain.

"I'm Donna, who're you?"

"I'm Donna too."

"Doctor! You took one of the fake ones!"

"Oi! I'm real!"

"Well I didn't know she was a clone! Besides, for all we know, you could be a clone too."

"I'm no clone spaceman!"

"Yeah! Me neither!"

"Well then, you get down from there, and we'll go run some tests. I should be able to get some results now that I have a better idea what's going on. What are you doing up there anyhow?"

"I was sleeping, then I woke up, and I was hungry, then I came looking for food, and I was looking and I couldn't find any, and then I came here and I was looking and I couldn't find anything good and I was looking then you came in. Where were you then?"

"I was trying to figure out what's going on. Now, I'm going to set up some things in the lab. Older Donna will get you some food and then you two can meet me there, ok?"

"Who're you callin old?"

"What? I wasn't! I just..." the Doctor tried to protest, faltering under Donna's steady glare. "I'll be going now." He left the room quickly.

Donna chuckled, the younger version looked at her in awe.

"How'd you get him to do that?" she asked.

Donna grinned. "I think I can teach you a lot about tormenting a certain Time Lord. Let's start with his stash of banana muffins..."


	8. A Round Machine Thing

_A Round Machine-Thing_

_Summary: lil!Donna knows more than she was letting on..._

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

_AN/Warnings: Written for weekly drabble challenge #25 at doctor_donna. Prompt was 'baby'._

"That is... That's just strange!" the Doctor said, ruffling his hair.

"What's strange?" Donna asked, leaning over his shoulder to look at the test results.

"She hasn't just been cloned and de-aged, she's also been temporally displaced. But why would someone do that?"

"To make a splosion to make the thing go faster," the younger Donna said, as she wiped muffin crumbs from her face.

"Hey! Where'd you get muffins from?"

"Don't be such a baby! Focus!"

"Right! First, tell us how you figured that out. Then, explain the muffins." Donna slapped him in a non-violent way.

"Well, I first remember walking out of a machine... no wait! Before that was a flashy thing. Then I came out. There was a bunch of other people. And the lady said we weren't allowed to go in the big thingy."

"What big thing?" the Doctor asked.

"Shush! Let her finish her story!"

"Yeah! Let me finish! Where was I again? Oh yeah! The mean lady. I asked her why we couldn't and she said that the machine was gonna harknesh an asplosion to make her thingy go faster. I asked her how and she said that the te... temp... temp whatever would make a big hole or something. She talked a lot. I got bored and ran away."

"What did the machine look like?" the Doctor asked.

"Iunno... it was big and round and green."

The Doctor went to the computer and started rapidly typing, quickly pulling up a few images.

"Did it look like any of these?"

"That one!" she said, pointing to an image near the middle of the cluster.

"Are you sure?"

"Course I'm sure! I wouldnta said if I wasn't sure!" she huffed, pulling out another banana muffin.

"Hey! Those are my muffins!"

"Oh suck it up spaceman," Donna said, "What's so important about that machine thing?"

"I'll have to check it to make sure, if I'm right, it's really not good. You two stay in the TARDIS. Don't leave, no matter what!" he said, grabbing his coat and running out the door.

"Right," Donna said, turning to her younger counterpart, "How do you feel about going outside for a bit?"


	9. Hello Lady

_Hello Lady  
_

_Summary: The Doctor confronts what's lurking in the warehouse._

_Disclaimer: Don't own_

The girls caught up to the Doctor just outside of the warehouse.

"Donna? Other...Donna? What are you two doing here? I told you to stay behind. And where do you keep getting those muffins from?"

The younger girl smiled smugly as her counterpart replied, "Well, you don't honestly expect us to stay behind."

The Doctor muttered something derogatory about humans under his breath before waving them along beside him.

"Now be careful!" he said, "And don't wander off!"

The Doctor opened the door, and they snuck inside. The warehouse was deserted, almost every trace of the party that had raged were gone. The door swung shut behind them, leaving the room scarily dark.

"Doctor!" the younger voice cried out.

"Just a second," he said, fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. The whirring briefly interrupted the deep silence before the room erupted in light.

Standing in the middle of the room was a woman wearing a clingy grey dress.

"Thank you, Doctor," she said, "For returning my parts to me." She snapped her fingers and four new Donnas came behind them, restraining the other Donnas.

"Let them go!" the Doctor said.

"I think not. Take them to the machine and prepare it for me."

"Cream. Cheese." the Donnas said monotonously, marching off, completely ignoring the other two's protests.

"You've hypnotised them."

"Of course, after the last one escaped. Plus, the incessant chatter was getting irksome."

"Give them back. Whatever you're planning won't work anyway."

"Au contraire, my plan is nearly foolproof, and, at any rate, so close to completion that nothing could be done to stop me."

"I wouldn't bet on that."

"Doctor, attempting to thwart me would be hardly possible. Once those two are placed in the Blinovich Maximiser, I will be able to harness the energy expelled by their contact and put it to... good use."

"Good use? By putting two identical people, technically from different times, in direct contact with each other, you could tear a hole in the universe!"

"Please, you insult me. The machine has put this all into consideration. All side effects are contained in the machine and converted to energy."

"You'll kill them."

"Of course. The clones will, unfortunately, be only good for one use, but I intend to get maximum effects from the original Miss Noble."

"You can't do this," the Doctor said as they heard the whirring sound of a machine starting up. The lady smirked.

"And you, dear Doctor, can't stop me."


End file.
